Saturday, January 26, was a milestone day for the team. Big Daddy and Wrench got the day started by organizing the garage and making room for the project. It went much better than the last time we had to do this. The project at that time was to paint BD’s Cobra and the reorganizing effort took much longer.
In a few short hours the garage was prepared and “Dottie” was motored in and placed upon her throne (4 jack-stands). With this accomplished, we were off to the first official team meeting. Order was call with everyone present and accounted for. BD, Wrench, Crash, Kamikaze and Leezard all arrived on time for our meeting at Hooters in Kennesaw. Aside for some questionable service for our lone female team member, the meeting was very productive. Everyone is very enthusiastic about the project and lots of great ideas were shared. Enthusiasm was so high that the meeting adjourned back to the Wrench’s garage for a late night work session.
By the time we were ready to call it a night Dottie had been stripped to her skivvies. The gal has seen a lot of hard miles. As expected, the floor pans were gone. Fred Flinstone could have driven this thing! But there is some good news (aside from the fact that whatever built the nest behind the speaker on the driver’s side had already vacated)…
An inspection from underneath revealed that the transmission is not original. It is painted silver, indicative of being a rebuilt unit or from spending some serious time in a transmission shop. There are also hints that the clutch assembly may not be that old as speculated since some of the associated parts don’t look like they’ve weathered that much.
In addition to that, we had a bite on our recent Craigslist add for “misc Datsun parts for sale”. A guy named Mark came by in an identical Datsun. This car was the guy’s daily driver. He had 240,000 miles on it and was bragging about how well it ran. His complaint was that it looked like a piece of crap. He thought Dottie looked much better. He wanted everything, interior panels, T-Tops, seats, rear hatch, trim, etc. He wanted… Unfortunately, he didn’t have any cash and the only thing he had to trade was a wheel. We traded him an interior panel and some ratty carpeting for the wheel. We agreed to a future trade of the T-Tops and door panels for the 4 wheels and tires on his ride after he gets some 15” wheels. The rest we’re holding for cash.
Speaking of cash, stripping out the interior was better than most scratch-off tickets. $3.47 in coinage was recovered from the heap (although needing some serious disinfection). It’s hard to imagine how much was lost over the years through the holes in the floor. This booty will be deducted from our purchase price and be put towards the performance of the car. What to buy??? … Hmmm… Maybe a sparkplug, perhaps a couple hose clamps, possibly a couple feet of heater hose, the possibilities are endless!We’re out of the blocks and on our way.
In a few short hours the garage was prepared and “Dottie” was motored in and placed upon her throne (4 jack-stands). With this accomplished, we were off to the first official team meeting. Order was call with everyone present and accounted for. BD, Wrench, Crash, Kamikaze and Leezard all arrived on time for our meeting at Hooters in Kennesaw. Aside for some questionable service for our lone female team member, the meeting was very productive. Everyone is very enthusiastic about the project and lots of great ideas were shared. Enthusiasm was so high that the meeting adjourned back to the Wrench’s garage for a late night work session.
By the time we were ready to call it a night Dottie had been stripped to her skivvies. The gal has seen a lot of hard miles. As expected, the floor pans were gone. Fred Flinstone could have driven this thing! But there is some good news (aside from the fact that whatever built the nest behind the speaker on the driver’s side had already vacated)…
An inspection from underneath revealed that the transmission is not original. It is painted silver, indicative of being a rebuilt unit or from spending some serious time in a transmission shop. There are also hints that the clutch assembly may not be that old as speculated since some of the associated parts don’t look like they’ve weathered that much.
In addition to that, we had a bite on our recent Craigslist add for “misc Datsun parts for sale”. A guy named Mark came by in an identical Datsun. This car was the guy’s daily driver. He had 240,000 miles on it and was bragging about how well it ran. His complaint was that it looked like a piece of crap. He thought Dottie looked much better. He wanted everything, interior panels, T-Tops, seats, rear hatch, trim, etc. He wanted… Unfortunately, he didn’t have any cash and the only thing he had to trade was a wheel. We traded him an interior panel and some ratty carpeting for the wheel. We agreed to a future trade of the T-Tops and door panels for the 4 wheels and tires on his ride after he gets some 15” wheels. The rest we’re holding for cash.
Speaking of cash, stripping out the interior was better than most scratch-off tickets. $3.47 in coinage was recovered from the heap (although needing some serious disinfection). It’s hard to imagine how much was lost over the years through the holes in the floor. This booty will be deducted from our purchase price and be put towards the performance of the car. What to buy??? … Hmmm… Maybe a sparkplug, perhaps a couple hose clamps, possibly a couple feet of heater hose, the possibilities are endless!We’re out of the blocks and on our way.
Kershaw, SC -182 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment